Shattered Wings
by DownloadWasTaken
Summary: After she died, Summer left behind a old box things. Some of it personal items, but also some of items of her people. Qrow doesn't know much about them, just that Summer had been one of the last.


Just an idea I had. No guarantee I'll write more.

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**Shattered Wings**

The scythe was shattered, its blade having separated from the shaft in a fan of splinters and jagged bits of wood.

Though the blade had been crude, it wasn't a terrible first attempt, but it had never really been cut out for use in the hands of an aura-adept. Maybe in the hands of a regular human against another aura-less human, or maybe against the weakest of grimm it would have worked. But trying to slice a tree in half wider than the girl wielding it?

Ruby looked forlorn, staring at the remains of her weapons with wet eyes. She had probably put many hours into constructing it, something that would have felt like an eternity to a child.

"Nothing lasts forever kid," he said, trying to perk her up.

Though Ruby took her eyes off her weapon she didn't look any less lost.

"We can glue it back together. It might not ever be the same, but you can keep it on your wall, as a memento," continued Qrow.

"Come on," he said as he took Ruby's scythe into his hands and placed it on the coffee table between them. "There's something I want to show you."

Ruby hesitated to stand up and follow, but eventually did after a few moments, following her uncle out of the room and towards her father's bedroom. She wasn't sure either Qrow or herself should be in here with dad out for the day, but followed anyway.

Uncle Qrow walked around the bed towards the fitted wardrobe and opened the nearest door to reveal some of her dad's clothing. Muttering a quiet "nope", Uncle Qrow closed the first door and went to the next, revealing dad's backup weapons and some spare Huntsman clothing and equipment. Another door closed and another opened to reveal dusty women's clothing.

"Ah, yes," said Uncle Qrow as he pushed aside the clothing and reached in. A moment later he pulled out a strange metal box by its handle.

"Come on, let's do this in the kitchen."

As her uncle walked out of the room, she spotted a strange symbol on the well-worn box's side. It resembled a winged sword, stencilled in a chipped dull bronze colour. Ruby quickly followed, staring momentarily at the remains of her scythe again as she followed her uncle into the kitchen where he placed the box on the table.

"This was your mother's," said her uncle. "Some of it her things, some of it things from her people, most of her more valuable possessions."

Ruby stared at the old box wide-eyed. She didn't have much of her mother's, just a name, even the cloak was just a symbol, and had not actually been hers. Her dad rarely told stories, it was just too painful for him; almost everything she knew about her came from Yang's earliest memories or from her uncle.

"Her people?" she asked.

Ruby had never heard of her mother's people being something notable.

"Yeah," he replied. "Your mother rarely spoke about them. They're… gone. Talking about it was painful for her. Most of what is in this box is what little she managed to escape with."

Qrow stared off out the window as he remembered.

"I sometimes wondered what happened to them. It would have taken a lot; your mum said she had just been an apprentice and that a master or a knight would have knocked her to the floor in a few seconds flat." Qrow gave a single breathy chuckle. "Which is saying something given she stepped into Beacon so much skill that she could knock almost any student to the floor, all the way up to Fourth Years."

Qrow gave another laugh.

"She was shit at much of the theory stuff though, came into Beacon way behind in a lot of the soft sciences. I think grimm biology had been her worst first year. Not surprising really given a lot of the little towns out in the boonies are a bit light on the theoretical education. I guess the brim bio didn't matter so much when you can cut almost anything in half."

Qrow smiled for a few moments, lost in thoughts to the days when things had been easier in many ways.

The knowledge that her mum had lost almost everything had been sad, but at the same time Ruby couldn't help but suck up every bit of knowledge she could about her. She let her uncle reminisce for a few moments before he snapped out of it and returned to the box.

"Well, let's take a look," he said as he fumbled with the latch. Ruby had never seen one like it before. It seemed a bit complex, but didn't seem like it could accidentally be unlatched.

With a click it opened. Ruby stood up on her chair to look in as her uncle opened the box.

The inside wasn't as immediately interesting as she thought it would be. Everything seemed to be wrapped up carefully in cloth to protect it, almost hiding the contents. Qrow though didn't hesitate for more than a second, pulling out a wrapped cylinder of sorts and tugged on the small string bow securing the fabric in place, revealing a strange silvery metal cylinder. Ruby could clearly see a button on it and some rubbery material that looked like texture for grip.

Uncle Qrow pointed one end away from both of them, gave her a small smirk and pushed the button. A beam of bright blue light extended from the hilt almost immediately, its glow illuminating the kitchen.

She was almost mesmerised for a few moments, staring at the strong, beautiful blue colour. It hummed slightly, like some powerful electric machine and she realised it was a weapon of some sort: a sword.

"You mum called it a light sabre," said Qrow, answering her unasked question. "Apparently almost all of her people used them."

Ruby stared at it for a few more seconds, the humming intensifying momentarily as the blade moved through the air.

"Was this.. mum's?" she asked.

The blade stilled.

"No," answered Qrow after a few moments. "The lightsabres in here are the ones she grabbed when she left."

So, it wasn't really her mother's… But still, it was something of her people.

"There's some spare parts in here to. Your mother used them to maintain her lightsabre. I think she was going to cannibalise the other ones when she ran out of spares. She was pretty insistent she couldn't get much of this stuff made. I thought it was money at the time but I really have no idea now where you could even get most of this stuff."

Qrow switched off the blade and set the weapon aside, before reaching for another item and pulling out a little cloth bag. He turned it out in his hands, revealing a number of small brightly coloured crystals. They looked like dust crystals, but it seemed a strange choice to store in this box.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Summer said there was one in every lightsabre. She said it was called Kyber."

Ruby felt the urge to reach out and grab one before controlling herself a few seconds later. Qrow put the gems back into the bag and set it aside again. He then pulled out another wrapped object, clearly pistol-shaped. Qrow looked faintly surprised.

"Really, all those years of calling guns uncivilised and she had one locked in her box?" Qrow asked himself.

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**As I said, don't expect more.**


End file.
